Marat/Sade

by Peter Weiss
Warwick University Drama Society, August 1980
Director: Sally Davies

Peter Weiss’s play The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade is, not surprisingly, usually referred to as Marat/Sade to save time. It used to be a staple of student drama, calling as it does for some declamatory speeches and lots of very uninhibited physical acting. Sally Davies’s production of the play, originally staged at the University of Warwick Arts Centre in November 1979, transferred to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe the following summer and garnered a rave review from The Scotsman – ‘one of the finest productions in the history of the Fringe.’

This off-duty photo of the company was taken on the first day of rehearsals in our Edinburgh venue, the Sculpture Court of Edinburgh College of Art in Lauriston Place. I’m lurking in the back row, third from left. Some other notable faces: Lorna Dickinson, sixth from right in the back row, is now a high-flying TV producer; Simon Grigg, kneeling in the middle row second from left, is the Rector of St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden; and Martyn Ingle, squatting centre in the white T-shirt, died tragically the following year after kicking off a promising acting career with a role in the film Quadrophenia.